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Protecting New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone

This page provides information on New Zealand’s proposed Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and Continental Shelf environmental effects legislation, and voluntary measures to manage risks before the law comes into effect. 

Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill

The Government has introduced a Bill to manage the environmental effects of activities in New Zealand’s oceans. The proposed law aims to protect our oceans from the potential environmental risks of activities like petroleum exploration, seabed mining, and marine energy generation and carbon capture developments.


The proposed legislation provides better protection for New Zealand’s marine environment, supports our reputation as a safe and clean environment, and provides certainty for industry on the regulatory processes that may affect investments.


The Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill was introduced to Parliament on 24 August 2011, and passed its First Reading on 13 September 2011. The Bill has been referred to the Local Government and Environment Committee. Public submissions on the Bill closed on 27 January 2012. Text of the Bill and further guidance on the submission process is available on the Legislation website. Any enquires on the Bill must be referred to the Clerk of the Local Government and Environment Committee.


The Resource Management Act regulates natural resource management activities on land and in the territorial sea out to 12 nautical miles. Fishing and shipping are already regulated, and the proposed legislation will not override those controls that already exist in the EEZ. But beyond 12 nautical miles New Zealand has historically had no means to assess and regulate the environmental effects of many other activities. The EEZ legislation aims to fill those regulatory gaps and manage the adverse environmental effects of currently unregulated activities in the EEZ and ECS.


Legislation will allow the classification of activities or effects as permitted, discretionary, or prohibited.  The classification will depend on the degree of harm or potential harm from an activity. For discretionary activities, operators in the EEZ will have to submit an impact assessment to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).  Without the EPA’s approval the activity in the EEZ will not be able to go ahead.


The proposed legislation will be an enabling Act – it will set up the general framework for the EEZ regulatory system. A detailed set of regulations will establish the legislation’s management system of rules and standards.  A discussion document setting out the proposed content for these regulations is planned for release in 2012 for public comment.

 

Interim measures

The legislation will not come into effect until a complete set of regulations is developed, probably in 2012. Some petroleum exploration is already permitted or due to start, so the Government has established voluntary measures to manage the risks in the interim.  The interim measures have been developed in consultation with industry, and foreshadow what will be required when the Bill comes into force. 

Industry will prepare environmental impact assessments and provide them to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), the proposed EEZ consenting authority, for review.

Policy decisions on the interim measures can be found in the August 2011 Cabinet paper. See the Impact Assessment Guidance (PDF, 82 KB) for industry on government expectations for the interim period. This is also available on the EPA website.


Further information:

 


Last updated: 2 February 2012